McDonald’s Texas Invitational has another stout Division I Gold bracket

By Robert Avery, Staff writer

Published
12:36 am CST, Friday, November 22, 2019

Sam Rayburn's Cam Mitchell knocks down a Brazoswood last-ditch effort to save a ball during Thursday's game in the Texans Gym.

Sam Rayburn's Cam Mitchell knocks down a Brazoswood last-ditch effort to save a ball during Thursday's game in the Texans Gym.

Photo: Robert Avery

Photo: Robert Avery

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Sam Rayburn's Cam Mitchell knocks down a Brazoswood last-ditch effort to save a ball during Thursday's game in the Texans Gym.

Sam Rayburn's Cam Mitchell knocks down a Brazoswood last-ditch effort to save a ball during Thursday's game in the Texans Gym.

Photo: Robert Avery

McDonald’s Texas Invitational has another stout Division I Gold bracket

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They’re the Lone Eagles.

Defending Division I Gold champion Allen High School will be the only returning Division I Gold bracket team when the eight teams begin Phase II Friday afternoon to finding this year’s McDonald’s Texas Invitational champion.

Allen used Thursday’s pool play to knock off Cinco Ranch 60-38 and Manvel 68-64 at Pasadena Memorial High School to punch its ticket to the Elite Eight, a group that will begin play at noon Friday at four different sites.

Allen, ranked 12th in the state by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and its preseason poll, will be joined by District 22-6A opponents Summer Creek and Atascocita along with Dickinson, Sam Houston, Fort Bend Elkins and Cypress Creek. Allen will oppose Ridge Point at Beverly Hills Intermediate School.

Ridge Point defeated Morton Ranch 85-75 and Mansfield Summit 44-42 in overtime to earn its chance to knock off the reigning Texas Invitational champs.

In the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll, Summer Creek is ranked 10th and Dickinson fourth in its preseason poll.

In the lower half of the bracket, Elkins and Sam Houston collide at South Houston High School and Atascocita will meet Cy-Creek at Pasadena High.

The semifinals are scheduled for 6 p.m. at South Houston and Memorial. Saturday night at 6, Phillips Field House will host the title game.

For the Pasadena ISD teams, it was a not a good day. The five boys teams went a collective 1-9, while the girls teams were 2-8, with Memorial defeating rival Sam Rayburn 39-32 for one of those victories.

But for what its worth, Rayburn lost to Brazoswood in a close game, 60-53, and Pasadena fell to Crosby 65-57. South Houston was dealt a 67-31 loss to Katy Tompkins and a 62-43 defeat at the hands of Cy Ridge.

So while South Houston, Rayburn and Pasadena will all play in the bronze bracket, starting at 9 a.m., Memorial will play in Silver after defeating Conroe 48-37, before losing to Bellaire 74-52. The Mavs will play at 10:30 at Sam Rayburn.

Dobie, competing in Division I, lost to Elkins 65-55 and to North Crowley 57-39. The Longhorns will play Morton Ranch Friday morning at 9 on the Longhorns court.

In the Rayburn-Brazoswood game, two former assistant coaches under Patrick McCoy, the former South Houston head coach, faced each other as head coaches.

“Trent (Olivier) and I used to be assistants under McCoy so it was the first time as head coaches that we coached against each other. Wished we would have won, but it was cool,” brand-new Rayburn head coach Corey Krampen said.

The Texans fell victim to Brazoswood’s habit of draining 3-point goals. The Bucs hit 10 of them and it was those bombs that helped manufacture a 15-0 run. Rayburn held a 42-38 lead early in the fourth and the Bucs then used that run to grab a 53-42 advantage.

In back-to-back possessions during the rampage, the Bucs drained two treys, both from the right side to up the lead to 50-42.

“Our goal is 12 (3-point goals per game). We’re just trying to hit any goal we can to help us win. I really didn’t think we shot (from outside) very well. We had a lot of wide-open looks that we missed early on but late in the game, we hit some big ones. We definitely rely on it. We really don’t have a post-up game so we hit threes when we can,” Olivier said.

The Texas Invitational record for 3-point goals in a single game is 15 and for a moment, it looked like the Bucs were going to tie the record.

Sam Rayburn didn’t do badly with its outside game, canning seven 3s, but when the Texans missed, they weren’t getting any second looks. The Bucs owned the defensive glass.

“That’s a credit to them, limiting us to one shot. We’ve got to do a better job of exploding with two hands. A lot of times, we’re trying to tip it to ourselves, which is OK at times, but against fundamentally-sound teams, that’s not good,” Krampen said.